Mochida's Hardships
by FinalXFantasy91
Summary: Mochida Kensuke admits. even though he is a captain of the Kendo Club; Even though, he has the leadership qualities to lead his team to the championships; Even though, he was part of the Student Committee and one of the male idols of Namimori Middle to High School. he didn't have a good life. He did not have a perfect life. HE had faults. Placed during series and in my fic - NHSF.
This is going to take place from the beginning of the series, to the future. It seems like I am ranting in the storyline, but I believe it will sound true…if I get it right.

 _ **Disclaimer: I don't own any of KHR characters. The plot-line of this story is my own imagination running with scenarios of minor character, Mochida Kensuke**_

 **Mochida's Hardships**

Mochida Kensuke admits... even though he is a captain of the Kendo Club; Even though, he has the leadership qualities to lead his team to the championships; Even though, he was part of the Student Committee and one of the male idols of Namimori Middle to High School... he didn't have a good life. He did not have a _perfect life._

 _HE_ had faults.

Outward appearances are deceiving. More so when it is a student who appears to have the looks, smarts, the popularity and easygoing smile.

Take Yamamoto Takeshi for example: he has the looks, the popularity and easygoing smile as well, but he tried to commit suicide when he broke his arm. That was a memorable moment for everyone when their baseball star exclaimed that not one of them understood how he felt. How he had felt like he was only being _used_. Not seen as a person but just an _object_ that could win the Season Cup for their school. The people around him were _never_ his _true friends_. They were just _people_ who wanted to be by his side _because_ of his talents at baseball. But the moment he broke his arm, they turned on him like _deceiving poisonous cobras_ ; spouting how they can't win anymore because of _him_.

When everyone lost hope in trying to coax the baseball star back from the ledge, it was the most unexpected person to stop him from taking that last step:

It was _Dame-_ Tsuna…

The person that failed at every subject test, even PE; stopped the teen from going to his death with words that spoke volume in not just how much insight he had of failures, but also the resolve of standing back up…what to _live_ for.

Out of all the people in the school populace standing like deers frozen, staring at the headlights of an oncoming car; _Dame-Tsuna_ , did something that no one expected him to do. He wasn't great and he failed and he was clumsy, _he_ admitted that. But he did one thing that no one tried to do that day. Go up to someone suicidal, and talk them out of it.

Every one of the students' standing, there on the rooftop… _behind_ _Dame-Tsuna…_ had just stood there, not going any closer because _they_ didn't want to take _responsibility_ if they failed. And that was what they were afraid of.

Kensuke, being present, was one of the people who watched Tsuna stop the teen from committing suicide. Watching Tsuna dive after the teen when the fence broke from his weight when trying to get back on the other side. Grabbing hold of the hand the moment he started falling even when he couldn't handle the weight but still managed to do so with resolve until Gokudera Hayato, the delinquent-genius outcast transfer student, who somehow became a worshiper of every step _Sawada Tsunayoshi takes_. Watched them becoming the _truest_ _friend_ that Takeshi has in his life.

It left him in awe-inspired.

However, the bitterness of his defeat during his match with the said teen and his own pride made him continue his belittling and bullying of Tsuna. Even though he didn't want to mentally.

Every word and shoves he made on the brunette left a sour-bile taste in his mouth. It made him wonder where he was getting it from.

It wasn't until the days he was hospitalized, thanks to the Kokuyo students attacking the Namimori students, that he had finally realized _why_ he acted as such.

He was taking example of his father… the man who didn't care for his family. The man who didn't love him and his siblings but the job of being the head of some corporation. The man who took his mother's life for granted for providing heirs and only using words of belittlement until she broke.

His two younger siblings, who once stood right beside him with happy faces when their mother was alive, stood further away and in the dark; Shying away from both him and their father, faces no longer brightening at their arrivals.

A few days; in such short time, it is all it took for him to see the truth. In the hospital, thinking while in that calm antiseptic air of the white room, that he realized what he was doing was the same treatment he was conditioned to believe:

" _The strong rules over the weak."_

What he was doing to Tsuna is the exact same treatment that he had received from his father. It was the belief in his fathers words. But he had found out that it wasn't true at all.

Tsuna coming to school everyday, despite the jeers and bullying. He did things that ever other person refused to take responsible for, and made friends with the impossible people who many considered untouchable. It defied every meaning his father said to him. That was the reason he felt the need to prove the words said to him every time.

Finding out his true reason in being such a bully to Tsuna, because of that… it disgusted him.

When he was released, the disgust increased when he finally opens his eyes to _see_ how his father treats his siblings as he was left to rest in his room like a prince (the heir to the corporation his father works at).

His siblings, Mamoru and Hiroshi (ages 9 and 10 respectively), had their heads bowed as his father shouted his disappointment in their grades and how they were dishonoring him in his company for being _incompetent in knowing something as simple as multiplications_ (even when they had told him that they were just _starting_ to understand the harder equations. And they were in different grades) _._ How they couldn't be like _Kensuke…HIM._

It continued like that for several minutes before he left to do some other business, not even bothering to console the now tearing up younger sons.

That moment of seeing his siblings crying without a sound, comforting each other, left his heart breaking in agony for not _seeing the truth of what he had almost become._

Coldhearted.

Un-compassionate.

Belittling of anyone considered weaker.

A _bully_.

He wasn't a _brother_.

He wasn't a _friend_.

He didn't brush the tears away for when someone needed to cry.

His siblings understood it better than him as they held each other to help themselves since Kensuke and their father wouldn't.

Finding it out like this was something he had to swallow whole.

So, he tries to become a better person.

The first step, was with his siblings. It was hard at first, trying to get them to trust him again. But when he managed to get them to smile at him, it lightened his heart. It made him realize just how long he had seen them smile _at him._

However, that same time he started seeing their smile, it was the beginning of a new hell altogether.

He was starting his second year at High School at the time.

Their father had suddenly lost his job due to complaints of so many employers and customers. Their lifestyle had to change from high-class to lower-mid-class. Instead of looking for new work, their father started to drink till he dropped.

And it didn't end there.

Instead of verbal abuse, it transformed into physical.

Kensuke, realizing this, jumped over his siblings, covering them as he took all the hits. When the beating let up and _that man_ (no longer considering as their father) went to sleep, Kensuke was left bleeding and bruised totally. Both Mamoru and Hiroshi (now 11 and 12) cried for him this time.

It made him happy for some reason. No, it was not the head injury. He was genuinely happy that he protected his siblings.

At first, the two wanted to go to the authority to report on the abuse. But they refrained. They were too afraid of loosing each other into the Foster-care system since they had no other living relatives left.

So, they kept silent and wrapped each others wounds.

The nightmare continued as they were falling into debts.

With that man now lazying about, not bothering to find a job and using their remaining known income like water with ever swig of the bottle, Kensuke had to start taking several part-time jobs to make ends meet. But he didn't want his siblings to come home when that man was drunk. So he asked the owners of each place to allow them to come along or work with him. Luckily they agreed and they made enough to pay most of the bills and for food.

Hard as it was, he felt satisfied.

But there was one thing that made him worry: His school grades were dropping.

Due to him becoming tired from working, he couldn't keep up with the material. His siblings didn't have to worry as much as the managers of the job wanted them to just work to a minimum. He was becoming someone of a failure and looked down upon. And with the grades he was making, he wouldn't be able to get into a university in order to find a high-paid job later on in his life.

His friends, he thought would stick by his side, turned away from him the moment they found out he was flunking. And by the end of the second and into the third, he was left alone.

Worse yet, his family was getting further into debt.

Depression began to set in at the failures he was accumulating and he was becoming close to ending everything. Until the memory Takeshi's suicide attempt rose from the depths of his mind. It almost seemed like a sign to him, to hear the words of wisdom from Tsunayoshi reverberate through him. Those words saved him that day. And saved his siblings from becoming alone with that man.

By mid-semester of his third-year in high school (when Kensuke turned 17); that man died from alcohol poisoning and things became a bit brighter for them.

Kensuke and his siblings didn't shed a tear on his funeral. If there was, it was for the happier times they had before everything changed. When that was, they couldn't even remember. All they were left from that man, was the bruises and scars left on their skin and heart… And, apparently, his will.

The man, somewhere during their time when they lived in the unhappy life of high-class people but still kind to smile at them, did some kind of inheritance insurance for them. The moment he made the insurance, he could never touch it, unless his sons get it for him.

It was a curious why the man didn't ask for them to do so, but it must be probably a laps of memory…or deep down, he still cared.

They wouldn't know now

Financially, they became stable; especially since the extra cash they received from their jobs.

The landlord allowed them to stay in another apartment (from what Kensuke heard, was to get a Feng-shui monk to cleanse the room of the karma it was accumulating from their stay there) with payment a bit lower than they had to pay for. The Mochida siblings, being unburdened of debt, began to excel again in their classes.

Kensuke, at the end of the year of his high school life, was hired as an instructor by the master of a Kendo dojo he had worked a few part-time jobs back. As time passed, and both him and his siblings graduated from university. He continued becoming an instructor and they going off to do whatever they wanted.

At age 22, Kensuke's mind wondered suddenly, as to what Sawada Tsunayoshi was doing now?

The brunette had changed throughout his school years; becoming confident, getting average to higher marks in tests, even excelling in PE. His looking became sharper, more handsomer by the days passed. People began to notice the change, stopped calling him _Dame_ -Tsuna. He started getting fangirls. Sure there were still the strange moments, where he kept dashing out of the room and the occasional sounds of explosions when he was nearby, but he changed.

At the end of High school, he and his friends (even Ryohei and the demon prefect Kyouya, to many's shock) left Namimori to, apparently, Italy.

Why there? Many had wondered the same thing.

A year later, there were rumors of something brewing in that foreign land. And it worried a lot of people when they kept hearing the Mafia was raising up a war. There were also trouble brewing in Namimori. People (men and women) were going missing and/or turning up dead in areas they were not meant to be in. Children are no better as they never turn up after they were taken.

On more than one occasion even his students, trained to defend themselves in every situation disappear. After the fourth, Kensuke started patrolling the area just like the Namimori Diciplinary's used to do back in his days (they have dwindled down in their strictness after the demon prefect left).

However, upon the first meeting of those assailants, saving the ones that was being attacked and almost dying; he was introduced to flames (his being sun and rain) by a passing stranger who was looking into the problems (he believed his name was Lancia, or something like that. He wasn't that hard to forget, with that big ball that seemed to screech every time it was thrown by the guy and the scars on his face).

The next patrol he followed the guys advice to bring a katana with him, using the flames to help (and it did on many of them, saving many lives along the way).

The second time he met Lanchi-san, was during another patrol which he became too cocky. He was saved again and he asked the man as to why he was still around.

"My boss asked me to protect this town until he can get some more people to help since a lot of activity from the mafia has been picked up here. For the moment, Namimori has only me and a few others as the defense line," he answered solemnly. He then took out a golden crest giving it to him. "If you see anyone with this symbol, they are the ones protecting this town until reinforcements arrive. Know this symbol means that they will also know you are part of the defense. Vongola needs every man in this war and I have a feeling you can help us out."

After that he left and haven't seen the man since.

And the assaults escalated to around the world. His siblings met death soon after. Kensuke had weeped for them, his only siblings. He wanted to follow, but he knew he needed to protect Namimori.

With the ways things were going in Namimori, Kensuke felt somewhat worried about the former Namimori classmates that decided to move to Italy.

"Mochida-sensei," a student of his brought him out of his musing.

"Ah, sorry, Jouichi-kun. Did you say something?" he asked with a gentler tone.

"You have a visitor, senesi," the young teen said with a smile. "He said he's a friend, but I wasn't sure. He does have a kendo-shinai strapped to his back though."

"Ah, alright. Thanks for the notification, Jouichi-kun. You're free for today."

"Really!? Thanks sensei, you're the best! Bye!"

Shaking his head in amusement, the new Kendo dojo owner walked out to the hallway to meet with the guest. To his shock, it wasn't who he had expected.

The man hadn't changed much, besides his sharper features, a cut marring his chin and the more expensive-looking clothes; it was without a doubt, Yamamoto Takeshi.

Said man smiled like he did during their school years together when seeing him; raising his hand in a gesture before saying, "Yo, Mochida-sempai! Long time no see!"

"Yamamoto-san…what brings you here?" he asked curiously, his eyes flickering to the shinai that was indeed over the man's shoulder like his student had said. Kensuke curiously wondered, what made the baseball ace leave his favorite sport and into swordsmanship.

"Aww~ can't a guy greet the Kendo Captain?"

"I have some doubts about that, since we weren't that close."

"Ah, that's true," Takeshi's smile then dropped, his eyes sharpening like he was readying a serious business presentation. "I have come to ask for your help on something."

Attention heightening, after years of honing as a Kendo captain, he could feel the former baseball ace's aura radiating from him. Eyes narrowed, he asked, "What is it?"

"You meet Lancia-san, yeah?" he asked. Kensuke's eyes narrowed sharply, wondering why the man he met in passing was mentioned. But seeing the look in the other's eyes, he nodded. Takeshi pursed his lips tightly before asking another question. "Have you heard from him since?"

Kensuke's felt as if his stomach dropped out of his body, upon hearing that. "No…"

Immediately, he noticed how the teens body drooped, hands clenched. The former baseball ace breathed in with a bit of a hitch, closing his eyes as if in pain before opening them again to look down at the phone he had dug out.

It was blue touch-screen, top of the art, phone that was never displayed in other phone service stores. It also held a ornate golden seal…the same seal he was given by Lancia. A bullet in the middle, with Vongola etched on the bottom and guns crossing over like an X under a winged clam right over the bullet.

A bit of blue flames (surprising Kensuke) and the phone turned on to the home-screen contact page. He quickly pressed the first contact and it rang a few times before a smooth voice of Sawada Tsunayoshi came through crisp and clear like her was in front of them.

"Takeshi…what's the news." The voice of the brunette didn't sound happy with the call, as if knowing what news he was going to hear. And with Kensuke answering that simple question about the whereabouts of Lanchia, it wasn't.

"Lanchia's missing…"

A hitched breath, like Takeshi's, followed the answer before composing. "Mochida-sempai there then?"

"Yeah."

A pause, as if to triple think what to say. Tsunayoshi spoke to Kensuke for the first time not forced like in the past: "I am Sawada-Vongola Tsunayoshi, Vongola Decimo. But I bet you remember me, Mochida Kensuke. I would like you to formally accept you into the Vongola Famiglia. Please, help us in protecting Namimori's citizens until everything is over."

Kensuke was stunned, but he didn't have to be asked twice. Namimori…although having bad memories…also held the beginning of his change. And the person that changed his view was asking him to protect the town they both loved. He accepted without another thought.

He had a few meetings with the young Decimo after, along with the Guardians (Kyouya was a shocker for him and the others he had recruited) and the slowly weakening Acrobaleno. A few times he had spoken to Tsuna alone, and he was glad that the brunette didn't have any negative feelings towards him. They became close friends, calling each other by name.

As time passed the tragedies of the Vongola Famiglia's death and allies increased. Kensuke then heard that Tsuna had a plan, but he wouldn't divulge in what it was to anyone.

Three months later, after the friendship was formed, he ended up hearing that Tsuna had gone into the meeting with the Millefiore and returned in a casket.

It devastated him and everyone who grew loyal to the brunette.

In a sense of duty, he and the others rose up to a base without consulting anyone. They managed to demolish the whole base and the enemies, but in the end, he fell in to black.

He became a hero to the survivors, and a loyal friend and member of Vongola.

But soon, that reality would disappear. As soon as the 14 year old Tsuna and his Guardians took the war by a storm.

….

16 year old Mochida Kensuke woke up abruptly one morning. A few days after being released from the hospital. His mind confused by the memories that were his, but as well not.

He didn't know if it was true, but when one of the people he had recruited came up to him with the code they made, he knew that the memories of them joining the Vongola Famigila, a mafia, and died in declaration of the fallen Decimo, Sawada Tsunayoshi… they were all true.

So, the newly revived youthful-recruits, waited, watching their boss grow and changing themselves to be what they were in that other reality. They changed their past, into something they would be proud of earlier on in life.

They were changing the future with the soon-to-become Vongola Decimo Generation into a world they believe will give them and everyone peace.

When Kensuke finally could confirm his loyalty, it was during an announcement for the upcoming Namimori High School Festival. And he was happy that he could make things right early on in this life.


End file.
